


Snow Drops

by tatertotarmy



Category: Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:04:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatertotarmy/pseuds/tatertotarmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zaid hated the snow. He hated the cold. He hated the way he had to wear so many layers. He hated that he could just as easily be sitting in his tent in the desert where the temperature was reasonable. Most of all, he hated remembering that day. </p>
<p>Originally written for the HM Starry Night Exchange in 2015 for laverrecity on Tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow Drops

One good thing about the Univir Settlement was that Zaid didn’t have to deal with the snow. He hated cold weather to begin with, and at least in the desert all of the cold was restricted to nighttime. Now that the Unity Festival had passed and they were _apparently_ all friends with the humans now, Zaid was just constantly reminded as to why he hated cold weather. His joints were slow, creaky, and numb whenever he practiced swordplay with Mr. Slice. He could barely move his body anyway, with too many layers over his regular clothes. Plus, every now and then an extra cold breeze would roll by and knock the air from his lungs.

It was terrible, and Zaid preferred spending his days at the settlement in the winter. He didn't like tailing Kuruna on her daily goodwill visits - all done just in case a visiting human hadn’t gotten the memo about monsters yet. The desert was where he belonged, where everything remained temperate for the season and snow wasn't anywhere for miles.

Another snowflake tumbled down his bangs and he grunted, running a gloved hand through his hair. He could feel how wet his hair had become from the snow, even if he had been ducking for cover every chance he got. It made him shiver beneath his layers, the cold having crept in despite Kuruna’s careful nature. It had been her that insisted on him wearing heavier clothes when they went to Sharance. Zaid was never one to reject a gift from Kuruna, but he wondered if the clothes even worked properly at this point. They were supposed to make him feel warm, but he still felt cold. What was the point of wearing this if he was going to be cold, anyway?

Proud, silver eyes traced the snowflakes as they fell down to the field outside Micah’s tree house. Kuruna had wanted to have a long chat with the mayor at that damned flower shop, so he charged out into the snow just to risk hypothermia over allergies. But still, looking up at the snow-covered branches made him begin to wonder. Before Micah had somehow convinced Kuruna to meet with the humans, Zaid could remember when he had seen snow. It had snowed at least once a winter in the desert, but he made a point to be inside the tent whenever it did. He would only hear about it from the smaller monsters that had been up playing in it, even though it left them coated in sand once it was all melted. Like they forgot that sand would stick to the snow too.

He blinked. A flash of red hair was painted behind his eyelids. 

He remembered.

The last time had been when he was home. His real home.

_“Come on, Zaid. Bet you can do better than that!”_

_A red-head stood in front of him, only a year older than him. In the child’s hand was a thick snowball gathered up from the messy ground. Zaid scrambled to get another snowball to counter with. He wasn’t about to lose this round, especially to an older kid!_

_“You’re on, Doug!” Zaid called out, barely dodging a snowball thrown his way as he cradled his new ammunition in his hand._

A smirk played on his lips as he remembered Doug, one of the older dwarves at the settlement. He wasn’t the strongest – Zaid was always the strongest one – but he was always crafty, sneaky. Always the smarter one, no matter what Zaid tried.

_“Finally got you!” Zaid cried out triumphantly, the wide smile on his face revealing several missing teeth. All lost from fights, but at least his parents said he didn’t lose the permanent ones. He was always proud of missing teeth, like each gap was a trophy won from every losing match._

_Doug laughed, “Right, right…” He brushed the snow from his red hair and looked around quickly while Zaid was too busy laughing over his victory. In seconds, Doug had a handful of snow in his hand. Which ended up going right down Zaid’s shirt._

_“Hey!” Zaid cried out, body shivering violently as he scrambled to get the snow out, “No fair!”_

_Doug didn’t answer, having fallen from laughing too much._

His fists clenched despite himself as memories passed in front of him. No matter how friendly he got with these humans, the rage pent up from years of unanswered questions and mourning couldn’t disappear like a childish story - as Micah sometimes liked to believe. The slaughter of his clan had been senseless, a complete slaughter that Zaid couldn’t wash away no matter how many Unity Festivals there would be in the future. He had accepted peace with the thought that not all humans would have done something so horrific, but just knowing that those responsible were still out there made him furious.

_He was hungry, shivering against the cold. He didn’t want to touch the clothes on his body, didn’t want his fingers to graze the dried stains on his shirt. All he could see was an endless forest, nobody for miles. Nobody to notice that he had fallen in the middle of the forest, body too worn to even move. How long had it been since he ran with his father’s sword? Hours? Days? Weeks? Zaid heard that dwarves couldn’t live long without food. When was that, again?_

_Was he going to die here?_

_A needle prick went through his neck, and another pricked his cheek. White dots began to fall from the sky, like ashes paled by the death of a family. Snow. He looked up, eyes unfocused as he saw thousands of white dots tumble from the sky. He didn’t realize how cold it was, he couldn’t feel anything aside from pin-pricks. That and the lingering pain on his cheek. It hurt a lot at first, but it just grew numb since he ran. Now it was just gentle tugs on his skin and the inability to open his mouth all the way. If he opened it to scream, he could feel his cheek rip at the seams. At first, it was annoying. Now, it was just another fact. He couldn't scream because it was pointless. Because nobody would come._

_A rustle in the bushes made his head roll back down to the surface, towards a shadowed figure that stood a distance away. Zaid couldn’t see any details, just vague colors and shapes. Red all over them, red at the top of their head._

_“Doug…?” Zaid called out, taking a shaky step forward, “Is that you…?”He tried to take another step, only for his foot to give out beneath him. He collapsed to the ground and fought to keep his head up. Above, he could see the figure approach. Tall, much taller than even the adults at the clan. A red, hooded cloak was draped over them, and Zaid could see a horn poke out from the shadows._

_The figure pulled back their hood, revealing a young, horned woman with a pale face._

_“Tell me, child, what has happened?”_

Zaid let out a heavy sigh, looking back down to the earth of the present. Snow was a pain in the ass.

“Zaid?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin, seeing Kuruna looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.

When Zaid didn’t immediately speak, she spoke again, “Are you alright? It is unlike you to be unguarded.”

Zaid remained silent, not really wanting to dump his worries onto Kuruna. It had been her that had found him days after he ran away from the burning wreckage of his clan. It had been her that nursed him to health and patiently listened to his rage. It had been her that built him back up after that snowy afternoon, no matter what he said or acted like in contrast to the Univir culture.

“Eh,” Zaid smiled, “Just lost in thought. You ready to head back?”

Kuruna took a good look at him again, like she was searching for something on his face as if it were a map, “Well…I suppose the snow is different for all of us. I am ready to return home, if you are also ready.”

“Yea, I’m ready,” Zaid answered, “Home sounds nice…” No matter how lost Zaid got in the human world, he could always find his stability in the desert.


End file.
